The Sad, Sad Tale of Fire Mountain Games

Throne of Night promotional piece by Michael Clarke

Edit: Regarding print-on-demand options for Throne of Night on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow, I do not have any cited sources on this at the moment.  There is however, a print-on-demand option for Way of the Wicked Book Seven as of this posting, was offered as a presale via KickStarter as a stretch goal.

I do recall such an option existing at one point, but as of now I want to use claims backed up by links, quotes, and statements by companies concerning Throne of Night.

Even the stamp of a well-respected name is not enough to prevent a KickStarter scandal.  The creator of Mega Man is currently in hot water over his Red Ash project, whereas three years ago one of the most respected voices in the OSR lost virtually all the goodwill he had in the community over the Dwimmermount fiasco.

The Pathfinder community is no exception to this, although the major one in this fandom is not talked about as much in comparison to Dwimmermount or other failed RPG projects.  For that reason I'm making this blog post in the hopes of spreading awareness.

Let's start from the beginning

Fire Mountain Games is a third party publisher which received a lot of praise for its work, specifically the Way of the Wicked Adventure Path.  The basic idea is that the PCs are the bad guys for a change, working for the glory of Asmodeus and plotting to overthrow the Lawful Good nation of Talingarde.  The six-part series has many novel features: in Book Two the PCs maintain theirs own dungeon to guard against adventurers and do-gooders; a reverse dungeon crawl, if you will. In Book Three, there's an assault on a holy mountain temple which pit the PCs against celestials who otherwise are not typical monster encounters.  The Book Six finale even has a nation-building scenario where the party takes over Talingarde.  Way of the Wicked was also noted for its high quality in spite of only having one writer: it's no secret that Pathfinder's system breaks down horribly at higher levels, and many adventure paths don't go to 20th level anymore.  But Way of the Wicked managed to remain fun for many players to the very end.

Fire Mountain Games was a newcomer to self-publishing, beginning around late 2011.  It was a two-man operation, with Gary McBride as the business owner, writer, and handler of all non-art material, and Michael Clarke who illustrated many beautiful pieces for the books.  McBride was an active member of the community, interacting with folks on message boards and even writing articles for fan magazines such as Wayfinder.  By 2012 Way of the Wicked was nearly done, and McBride announced on the Paizo boards his next big project: Throne of Night.  It was intended to be a six-part adventure path, an underground sandbox where the PCs are either dwarven explorers or drow conquerors building territory and accumulating resources in pursuit of building a grand subterranean civilization.

Fire Mountain Games managed to release a new installment of Way of the Wicked every 6 to 8 weeks.  Although Paizo adventure paths were of similar length and released in monthly installments, McBride was a one-man writer.  In early 2013 Pathfinder's only evil adventure path at the time came to a satisfying conclusion with Book Six: the Wages of Sin.

Fire Mountain Games was in an enviable position among third party publishers.  McBride's work became a household name among Pathfinder players in less than a year and with just a couple books to his name.  Even other respected companies such as Dreamscarred Press didn't get to this level of acclaim without years worth of work and dozens of sourcebooks under their belt.  When the Throne of Night Kickstarter page came up, it surpassed its funding by leaps and bounds with $40,640 from 314 backers.

It all goes downhill from here

A lot of the conversation among backers can be found in this Paizo thread and in the comments section of the KickStarter page.  But the abridged version of events is that this turned into one of the worst communications between project-maker and backers.  Going by the updates list, McBride remained active and communicative all the way up to the funding deadline on May 7th, 2013.  The backer levels included PDF and physical copies of the Throne of Night series, as well as similar options for Way of the Wicked.  The estimated release date for Book One of Throne of Night was May 2013, with a new book coming out every two months according to the backer rewards.  The project's estimated time of completion was March 2014.

There were delays.  Not surprising, considering that as far as we know McBride is doing everything but the artwork himself.  But it was the lack of communication, along with backers not getting promised physical books, which began to turn people against Fire Mountain Games.  June, July, and August saw monthly updates and explanations that work on Book One is still being done.  It finally comes out...in October, 2013.

Better late than never, some might say.  But the problem is that now there's a PDF and eventually print-on-demand options, which should mean that backers who pledged enough money to receive said copies should be getting one as soon as they become available according to the $120 backer pledge.  They did get their PDF copies, although the physical rewards are another story.

Fire Mountain Games also had a Creature Cards KickStarter set up before Throne of Night, and that too is riddled with its own problems of missed communication.  However, unlike Throne of Night it appears in the backer comments that more than a few folks received cards in the mail.  Some were satisfied, others remarked on the low printing quality of the cards.  According to the timeline the Creature Cards funded around November 2012, meaning that McBride launched the Throne of Night KickStarter almost as soon as his oldest one funded.

In another example of multi-tasking, Fire Mountain Games was making sheets for Ogre Nightfall, a table-top game headed by Steve Jackson Games.  The Nightfall sheets (which were FMG's responsibility) were not shipped out according to this thread.  In another Board Game Geek thread, Fire Mountain Games said that they'd ship them around May 2014, yet that never came to pass.

In early 2015 on the Ogre KickStarter page Steve Jackson Games picked up the pieces and shipped out Nightfall sheets to the backers who pledged for them.  The Nightfall fiasco was bad enough that Fire Mountain Games was added to Board Game Geek's wall of shame of companies known for delays, scams, and other troubling behaviors.

There is progress...of a sort

The Paizo thread, Throne of Night's KickStarter page, and Board Game Geek threads, all contain a running theme of any and all attempted communications to Fire Mountain Games not receiving any response.  Sometimes the KickStarter page updates are separated by months at a time, such as the dead silence from September 2013 to March 2014.

Naturally there's a lot of anger as well as speculation, in a few cases developing into threats of violence on the Paizo thread which resulted in bans and temporary thread locks.  Perhaps the most aggravating thing is that the KickStarter pages make apologies for lack of updates, that "it's been too long" with no explanation for said delays but he's hard at work, giving dates which end up getting missed and delayed time and time again.

The weird thing is that McBride has been active on KickStarter still, and as of this posting he last logged on July 24th, 2015.  Book Two of Throne of Night was released around April 2014, and the promised Book 7 of Way of the Wicked as a Throne of Night stretch goal was released in July of that same year.  He even funded and backed other KickStarter projects such as Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps during the normal radio silence, so he didn't drop off the face of the Internet.

The Throne of Night books were being sold on Drive-Thru RPG, RPGNow, and Paizo, with print-on-demand options in the former two stores.  Which brings us to another sticking point among backers: promised physical copies were not shipped to them, yet here they were for sale online.  Several days ago the Throne of Night books reverted to PDF-only purchase options.

The updates on the Throne of Night KickStarter page become more sporadic around 2014.  The majority of them focus around showing off new art, with no answers about shipping or progress reports on the Throne of Night adventures themselves.  August 2014 update promised a release for Book 3 around that year's December; here it is August 3rd, 2015 and still only 2 books are out.

One of the backers, Kevin_Video, said that he got into contact with the artist for the project, Michael Clarke, to discuss things.  Kevin posted the responses Clarke gave in the Paizo thread in these two posts:  First link.  Second link.

By July 2015, information was finally released on shipping.  McBride says he plans on finishing the remaining books, then printing out the physical copies to be all mailed off together.  This time there's no planned release dates, either for shipping or Books 3 through 6.

A compilation of problems

A long overdue estimated release date.  Lack of communication with backers and the vast majority of updates being artwork-related.  Selling the print-on-demand products online while not giving out the promised copies to backers.

The sad part about this is that Fire Mountain Games made an awesome track record with their books.  I purchased 2 of the released Throne of Night books and WotW Book 7; I can tell that McBride is still capable of putting together a well-crafted adventure.  But so much of this goodwill is squandered now, and a lot of his products are getting 1 star reviews of people pointing poor communication as well as accusing him of theft and fraud.

It is even more sad because I see this as a recurring theme among people who developed a sterling reputation in gamer communities, only to squander it all on a poorly-run KickStarter.  It is due to this why I've never backed crowdfunded projects myself in spite of all the good stories I hear.  Regardless of the reasons and circumstances behind Throne of Night, my best hope is that things work out and backers get what they're due.

A Handy-Dandy Collection of Links

Throne of Night KickStarter Page

Throne of Night Paizo Thread

Fire Mountain Games' Board Game Geek Entry

McBride post on physical shipping of Throne of Night books.

Comments section on Creature Cards KickStarter.

Steve Jackson Games post on Ogre Nightfall shipping solution.

Spheres of Power and the New D20 Boom and Bust

Cover Art by Ben Wootten

Within the last few months a particular third party Pathfinder product is receiving lots of attention.  Spheres of Power is an alternative to the standard Vancian Magic system, where spellcasters control aspects of reality (conjuration, fate, light, weather, etc) known and divided into "spheres."  Access to a sphere grants basic abilities, and more advanced magic can be gained via talents over the course of levels to spend on spheres.  Although non-Vancian alternatives are nothing new, Spheres of Power is notable for a well-funded KickStarter, high production values, and a growing fanbase in places such as Giant in the Playground and consistently good online sales.

Interestingly, Spheres of Power was uploaded to Drive-Thru RPG a little over a year ago, and didn't get much advertisement or word of mouth, much less reviews, in 2014.  It's good to see that a well-balanced and playtested magic system is getting the attention it deserves, but the one year gap is telling.

I believe this ties into a problem among third party publishing.  As of today, there are 1,414 products in the OSR category, and 4,828 products labelled as Pathfinder in Drive-Thru RPG's online storefront.  And the number seems to grow almost every day especially in regards to Pathfinder.  Although the D20 Boom far preceded both fandoms, online products were not as ubiquitous as they are today.  Playing around with search options, roughly 1/3rd of Pathfinder products are $3 or less, more akin to mini-sourcebooks than full supplements.

There are some products, such as Realms of Beltora, which have been up since Pathfinder's heyday in 2008 yet have no significant reviews or online discussion I could find anywhere.  And I'm not talking "30 New Sword Feats" or stuff like that; Beltora has 216 pages detailing new mechanics and setting material.  This is far above the time and effort of shovelware producers and themed mini-books which repeat the same formula.

On the one hand, it is good that the barrier of entry for aspiring creators is easy; all you need is Adobe InDesign, a willingness to write and play games, and some stock art to sell a decent RPG book without needing to worry about physical distribution and such.  But it also opens up the door to quantity over quality, where truly good works are confined to obscurity in a sea of competing products of dubious value.  There are good folk who do their part to bring to light these buried gems of their respective communities, such as Endzeitgeist or Erik Tenkar, but the open tent leaves little room for quality control or a platform to gather attention unless you already have a reputation.

Fortunately there are works which are getting their dues: KickStarter remains a great way to fund projects, Dreamscarred Press started out as an obscure company before becoming the gold standard for third party design and are well-respected, and Spheres of Power is getting its time in the spotlight.  But in spite of all this I worry that the OSR and Pathfinder fandoms are repeating the mistakes of the past D20 Boom.  There are folk I know who would ordinarily be interested in checking out a lot of books, but when push comes to shove option paralysis sets in.  When you have five necromancy-themed books all by different companies, or three desert-based campaign settings for sale, how do you know which one's the best without buying them all?

Ideas to offset a D20 Bust

Seal of Quality: During the 80s and 90s, Nintendo put out an Official Seal of Quality on approved products.  The North American Video Game Crash of 1983 was due to crappy games flooding the market, many of them untested and unfinished pushed right onto market shelves.  While the table-top fandom does not have the resources for a central committee of playtesters to comb through thousands of material as a job, having more full-time reviewers can certainly help.  In-depth analysis of the books' contents therein, like Something Awful's FATAL & Friends series, are more helpful than the highly vague "this book sucks" warning or "this book is full of neat options" I see all too often.

Engagement with the Community: Many third party publishers do not advertise their works much or interact with gaming communities.  They may not have a social media profile, don't hand out complementary reviews to get coverage, or link new products in advertisement sections of forums like RPGnet's Hype Machine.  Aside from a storefront on Drive-Thru RPG, they're more or less invisible.

A good portion of Pathfinder's popularity comes from the actions of Paizo in cultivating a sense of community among their fans.  They scooped up many 3rd Edition gamers dissatisfied with the direction of 4th Edition, and gave a sense of participation with an "Open Playtest" to let players help them iron out problems to make a new and improved 3.5 (I only feel that this was partially successful mechanics-wise, but that's for another blog post).  Furthermore, unpopular material has been retconned, the Pathfinder Society gives a sense of a shared world for participating players, and recent decisions regarding diversity and representation for minority gamers was welcomed by many.

One many not like Pathfinder's system, but they do foster a connection which feels more "real" than "corporate," even though they are just as merchandise-driven as any big company.

In short: get a social media page.  Listen to not just your fans, but see if there's any concepts or demands among gamers to seize upon ideas for customer interest.  Advertise your wares anywhere you can, and be an active participant in gaming communities.

Highlight the Good: Folks such as Interjection Games pointed out that reviews and discussion can gather enough interest in one's work to the point that it generates a noticeable sale in spikes.  Are there any products out there which you really enjoy?  Under-appreciated classics, nifty settings, cool spins on old tropes?  Talk about them, review them even if you want.  The more specific, the better; don't just say that something's good, tell people why it's good.  In the best case scenario, generating positive buzz might help the creator enough that they can use the funds to continue making even more good products.

It may sound cliche, but this is part of why I'm motivated to do reviews.  A lot of the time it's to ensure a regular writing schedule, but I've noticed that review threads on message boards (especially the bigger ones such as RPGnet or GiantITP) get very high results in search results.  So if you found a gem of an RPG and start up a detailed thread on it somewhere, other gamers can get attracted to it as well.

Conclusion

The Open Gaming License is a double-edged sword, and there's far too many products to reasonably cover or analyze.  I love OSR and Pathfinder games, and there are several companies and authors who earned their spotlight, but I do fear the negative effects this will have on up-and-coming game designers.

Quasar Knight Products are part of the Christmas in July Sale!

Christmas Image from WP Clipart

Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow have 25% off on a wide variety of titles in their stores, and my products are all part of the sale.

Here's the Drive-Thru link.

Here's the RPGNow link.

All of my current works are small, affordable sourcebooks for Pathfinder and OSR games providing extended options for both players and GMs.  I tend to go for ideas which haven't been explored much in their respective fandoms, such as monster classes based off of iconic creatures; kickass feats and archetypes intended to help underpowered martial classes do more cool stuff; and new mechanics to apply for a consistent, alignment-free game while still retaining paladins, demons, and other popular fantasy mainstays.

If you had your eyes on my selection for some time, now is a great opportunity to get your book of choice at a bargain price.  If the works of Quasar Knight Enterprises are new to you, give them and their previews a look and see if any appeal to you.

Interesting 3rd Party Finds: Secrets of the Masquerade Reveler (Pathfinder)

Cover Art by Sai Kayden

Drive-Thru RPG Link.

Pathfinder introduced the concept of archetypes around 2010.  They were largely alternate class features from the 3rd Edition days, although they became much more numerous and prominent.  Over time they served as an alternative to prestige classes, covering everything from fighting styles, magical disciplines, even members of renowned organizations, all accessible from 1st level.

Third party publishers followed suit with their own ideas, but given the brevity of mechanics it's not often that an entire product is dedicated to them.  But Secrets of the Masquerade Reveler is a worthy exception, detailing a Barbarian archetype who accesses a pool of Eidolon Evolutions while "raging" to represent alternate states of being.  The concept is a person whose close encounter with the fey realms gifted them with the ability to assume the traits of entities and ideals by undergoing a trance-like state known as a Masquerade which replaces the base Rage ability.

While in this Masquerade, the reveler can don "Masks" modeled off of fey creatures and certain professions in the form of 4 to 8 Evolution Points per Mask based on class level.  A Pixie Mask can grant flight and personal invisibility, the Sage's Mask can grant +8 bonus to most Knowledge checks, and so on and so forth.  Masquerade Revelers gain one Mask per level, and potentially more with the Extra Mask feat.  The base Evolutions are versatile enough, but the archetype has a host of new Evolutions specific to them such as Fey Magic which grants access to some illusion and nature-based spell-like abilities.

Although it is possible for a player to create one's own Mask, a healthy portion of the book provides many sample Masks, all grouped into types such as Fey, Gremlin, Forbidden, Beast, Mythic, and Tane Masks.  These are not just flavoring: several new feats within this book grant access to Masks of certain types, and some Evolutions can only be taken with said types (such as quadruped abilities and Beast Masks).  Even with the samples provided, one can see the Masquerade Reveler adequately serving a variety of roles: the Jinkin's Tiny size with Skilled in Disable Device and a later Dimension Door ability is a tailor-made scout, while the Dweomercat's Pounce ability is a welcome addition to any melee-focused character.  And that's not covering the Tane Masks, who represent the most powerful of fey lords such as the Jabberwock which can grant flight, twin fire-based eye rays, and Huge size among potential other abilities.

In Conclusion

Although the Masquerade Reveler gains quite a bit by trading away standard Rage and its expansions, the class is at once versatile while not being game-breaking.  The Masquerade ability is still keyed off of a rounds-per-day resource, so it doesn't have the long-term staying power of primary spellcasters whose effects can last for hours or even days. But access to flight, +8 for skills, tremorsense, radius auras, debuffs, Pounce, and many other abilities make it able to do a lot more things than most Barbarians and martials.  The in-character fluff text and explanations of certain Masks and revelers is cool and provides inspiration for interesting character concepts.  You can get a lot of mileage out of it as both a player and Game Master with the options provided.

For those interested in the mechanical side of things, I provide an in-depth look at the archetype and its many features in this thread.

Tips on how to avoid losing your work

Apologies if I haven't been posting much as of late, but currently I've been focusing my creative energies into other tasks at hand.  Hopefully I'll get another post up before the end of the month, but for now I wanted to touch on something I've sadly seen happen all too often among many creative types.

Perhaps you're writing a blog or message board post.  You spent over an hour applying the write touches and editing, setting up images and URL links.  Your mouse hovers over the "post" button, and WHAM!  Your Internet connection dies, causing all your work to be lost to the electronic abyss.  Maybe the message board hosting your material goes under, making your work similarly inaccessible.

Or maybe your hard drive breaks, causing all your work spent in InDesign to go to waste because you didn't save copies elsewhere.

When writing a post which requires a significant investment on your part, be it homebrew material, research notes, or even a political screed, have Microsoft Word or notepad open.  Copy-paste the work as you type it, so that when you're done and about to hit the "post" button you can have your hard work ready to go in case your Internet or website shorts out on you.

Secondly, when it comes to saved files, rely upon cloud storage spaces.  Save copies of your work to Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox, etc, in addition to your hard drive: Word, InDesign, JPEG, whatever it is, upload them.  Make new copies after every saved revision, so that each place has the most current work.  Google Drive is particularly good to write on as it automatically saves your work every few seconds.

Ever since I've been doing these steps, I saved tens of hours worth of work and leisure time from the terrible fate of "Could Not Connect to the Internet" or sudden power outages due to seasonal thunderstorms.  I implore writers and game designers to take this advice to heart and not just rely upon the goodwill of a functioning connection to save them.

Interesting 3rd Party Finds: the War Dancer (Pathfinder)

Cover Art by Miguel Santos

Note: I did a more in-depth review of game mechanics analysis over in this thread at Min-Max Boards if you're interested in that kind of stuff.

There are many third party classes out there for Pathfinder, and it's easy to get lost in a sea of supplements.  And a lot of existing options are derivative, recycling old mechanics instead of seeking out new rules for the game.  While there's nothing wrong with updating old information, it can get difficult at times to find a fresh take on iconic concepts, much less ones which do it well.

The War Dancer succeeds on both fronts.  It is a martial class which is geared around a "controller" role, that of using the environment, mobility, and trickery to exploit and alter enemy positions on the battlefield.  In short, it uses a limited-use daily resource of dancing as its iconic ability, and there are 13 possible dances to learn.  They ranged in use from elemental dances which can knock down enemies with earth tremors, ranged energy attacks, feats of impressive mobility which allow the dancer increased speed at its most basic and even dimension door teleportation at its most powerful!  There's even dances which contain nigh-essential features for fighter types, such as extended reach and single attack rolls which harm multiple opponents.  A tiny few dances are lackluster in power and use, but overall most have an effective application in many situations.

Beyond this the War Dancer can also cast spontaneous divine spells up to 4th level, and while most are more geared towards buffing and combat applications instead of utility, the class draws from a variety of existing spells from the cleric to the ranger to the wizard.  There is also two new archetypes, the Arcane War Dancer and Southern War Dancer, which grant the class limited access to the abilities of the magus and bard respectively while allowing armor proficiency.

My main complaint about the class is that unless one goes for an archetype, the lack of armor use makes the War Dancer very easy to hit for a melee fighter, and will require a lot of healing resources unless they make for good optimization and reach weapon extension builds.  Aside from this, the War Dancer has a variety of abilities to make for interesting stunts in combat beyond the typical "charge, full attack, manyshot/rapid shot" which tends to dominate Pathfinder martials and is a worthy purchase for its price at $2.99.

The War Dancer can be bought at Drive-Thru RPG/RPGNow, Paizo, and the D20 Pathfinder SRD.

Surprisingly fitting settings for OSR games

Even before the D20 boom there were folk designing their own worlds to share with other gamers for their favorite iteration of Dungeons & Dragons.  The Judge's Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy is probably one of the earliest known third party settings out there.  The trend continues onward with OSR and Pathfinder self-publishers, and there's already some folks using the 5th Edition ruleset to make their own material.  I'm rather worried about the last bit, as nothing approaching an OGL has been released yet by WotC, leaving the safety of said products in a sort of legal limbo.

Still, in my collecting of various gaming products, I found more than a few campaign settings which are highly appropriate for OSR games in spite of being made for newer rules engines in mind.  The mechanical rulesets of D20 D&D may be different, but a lot of the following settings are versatile enough to squeak into an old-school-style  game without much trouble.

Freeport

Freeport is probably one of the most iconic pirate cities in Dungeons & Dragons, even if it's an unofficial product.  Although it originated as an early entry into 3rd Edition, over time the setting's popularity saw it converted to a variety of rulesets, from Savage Worlds to Fate and even Castles & Crusades.  The Pirate's Guide to Freeport is a system-neutral book, and the beauty of it is that the material present clearly calls out several D&Disms with a piratey flavor.  The setting has a vibe of Lovecraftian horror lurking behind the tropical seas, what with hidden cults dedicated to Great Old Ones and a former empire of serpent folk existing among the ruined remnants of former civilizations.  Freeport tends to be more down to earth; it has its fair share of mages and monsters, although the city isn't packed to the gills with high-level world-bending individuals.  Many of its more interesting denizens have something to distinguish themselves other than a character class or magical discipline, such as a muckracking journalist, a vigilante paladin stalking the drug dens and sewers for evil to thwart, and even a scholarly orc clan who seek to uplift their kin through a cultural renaissance.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide

Although Pathfinder can be run in all sorts of settings, Paizo's Golarion has always been its flagship product.  Their renowned adventure paths all take place in this shared world, which now expanded into a veritable Inner Sea World Guide along with numerous sourcebooks dedicated to specific regions and groups.  Golarion vies for a kitchen sink approach, where its 50-plus countries are more or less organized into distinctive themes.  Ustalav is modeled off of Gothic Horror, the River Kingdoms is a frontier region of upstart lords and independent city-states, and Cheliax is a totalitarian empire where devotees of Asmodeus direct the nation's fate.  There's something for everyone in the Inner Sea, and you can't go wrong with homing in on a set location by finding the appropriate material for it or building inspiration off each nation's 4-page overview.

The Inner Sea's most iconic organization is the Pathfinder Society, an pseudo-Masonic lodge of scholars and delvers who travel the world and record their findings for the pursuit of knowledge (and to make money off of their findings).  The Pathfinders serve as a great way for adventuring parties to explore the world and its many secrets, while also lending an Indiana Jones two-fisted archaeologist vibe.

Maximum X-Crawl

The main pitch of X-Crawl is that it's set in a modern alternate Earth where elves, dragons, and other fantasy elements are real.  The repressive neo-Roman Empire rules over the North American continent, and one of the most popular means of escapism and entertainment is a reality game show where contestants fight through a constructed dungeon full of monsters and traps for fame and prizes.  That is, if they manage to survive.  I forget who made the connection or where (I believe it was RPGnet), but one person stated that this can make a great setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

In addition to the game show aspect of the setting, one of X-Crawl's more entertaining ideas is the implementation of a DJ, an in-character "Dungeon Master" responsible for the dungeon obstacle's oversight.  Many DJs keep in touch with adventuring teams via television sets and cameras, focusing on stellar performances for the crowd's delight while taunting their competency and recording every failure to push them further.  There are also limited rules for the use of fame, where particularly renown X-Crawl teams can gain the many privileges of media stardom (as well as its faults).

Primeval Thule Campaign Setting

Designed by Wizards of the Coast veterans, Primeval Thule is a setting which harkens back to an era of Conanesque Swords & Sorcery for Pathfinder, 13th Age, and 4th Edition D&D.  Interestingly, the majority of the book is not system-specific, instead dedicated to setting detail with the hard mechanics largely confined to appendices in the back.  It has a lot of classic Hyperborean goodness, such as magic being a mostly an unknown factor capable of terrible things.  Even the spells of priests and the like are learned via an inner circle of mystery cults part of the city-state's upper classes, so even the divine aspect is just as unknown and feared.  Demi-human races are present but tend to take a backseat to the dominant human powers.  Virtually every region of the world is brimming with adventure, from roving bands of warlords in the western plains to seemingly sentient glaciers threatening to engulf the north, with even individually-themed locations having enough variety for several kinds of adventures.  The elves are truly in decline, their people addicted to a vile drug disseminated by cultists of the Crawling Chaos so that their masters may feed upon their hallucinogen-fueled dreams.

Things I particularly like about Primeval Thule is the implementation of backgrounds, unique elements about your PCs to make them unique in the game, such as the Bearer of the Black Book where your spellcasting hero is pretty much the owner of the Necromonicon.  Also, ironworking is an art guarded by the dwarves; in the 4E version they're treated as magic weapons and armor for the purposes of game mechanics, an aspect which I'd adapt to other editions to preserve this metal's vaunted status.

Conclusion

All but X-Crawl is largely mechanics-free for most of its content, even if they were made for specific game lines.  I have a long and good history with Freeport, and the other three are so full of good ideas that it would be a crime to restrict them just to newer game engines.  I included links in the titles to storefronts in case you want to check out reviews and previews for yourself.  It shouldn't take much work converting them to Basic-Style OSR games, considering that a lot of their main pulls do not rely much upon 3.X tropes.

If you have any non-OSR campaigns of your own to recommend as good old-school fits, feel free to reply!